Apple invitation hints at new iPhone models

September 3, 2013

Transcript

-Hello, and welcome to Inside Scoop, I'm Sumi Das.
We are trying something a little bit different today.
Joining me via Skype is Josh Lowensohn, senior writer for CNET.
Josh, thanks for being with us.
-My pleasure.
-So Josh, you are among the lucky few, who received an invitation this morning for the upcoming Apple event.
These invites always have clues.
What were the clues this time?
They're really weren't a lot of clues on today's Apple invite.
The big tagline
was this should brighten everyone's day.
-And did it brighten your day Josh?
-It did brighten my day and the fact that it came when we are expecting it.
They sent it just after 9 AM Pacific Time, which is kind of their normal.
The big think to look for-- on the inviter, just a bunch of polka dots, basically, of colors.
You have yellows, greens, blues, oranges-- these are basically the colors we're expecting for their next iPhone, the iPhone 5C, along with the newer high-end model of the iPhone
5S.
-The 5C, that's the low-cost model iPhone that we're all expecting to be announced, is that right?
-Yeah.
This is the one that's probably gonna cost about $400, that's what the lot of analysts have expected between $400 and $500 unlocked, as a frame of reference.
The iPhone 4, which is now a 3-year-old model cost $450.
So t his is probably gonna be cheaper, more affordable and maybe something that's targeted towards emerging markets like China and India,
where a lot of people just buy their phone upfront, not from their carrier.
-So no clues about possible iPad announcements then?
-I'm pretty sure this is gonna be just for iPhones.
I think that a newer iPod or iPads are-- can be expecting in an event in October or maybe even early November.
That's something that's typically kind of bundled in with another announcements early so it was last year when Apple did it last October.
So there's a key reason that kind of launched those products in that product line in a later time
especially if they're doing 2 iPhone models.
A lot of the attention will shift to tablets and I think if you will look at something like the iPad and the iPad Mini, those are 2 things that really stand on the row now.
They're very popular products.
They've sold in some cases almost as many as iPhones.
So it's kind of become Apple's second big money-maker behind the iPhone.
-And is there anything to be inferred from the location?
We know the event is scheduled for September 10th, a lot of people were assuming it would be held here in San Francisco.
But it's actually going to take place in--
-Cupertino.
Yeah.
This is happening in Apple's headquarters.
And that's not really unusually.
They've done some other events there notably the iPhone 4S in 2011 as well as the new MacBook Air, as well as OS 10.7 Lion back in 2010.
So there's this kind of long history of doing events there.
The curious thing is whether they're gonna do it kind of on the same scale.
These events have gotten larger.
More and more people are
trying to get in there and cover it.
And this is one of the smallest venues to have it in.
Last year they had it in Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, which holds a lot more people and it's also more central in San Francisco.
-At least it's central for us given that CNET is based here in San Francisco.
All right, Josh, and you will be attending the event, I presume.
-Yeah.
I will be there live.
It's kind of unclear whether there will be live video Apple to that last October for the iPad Mini event but not for the iPhone event last September.
So I guess we'll
see.
-So this week, we're expecting a lot of Smartwatch announcements out of EFA in Berlin large conference.
We know that Samsung will unveil its Galaxy Gear, given that rumors have swirled around an Apple iWatch.
Does this put added pressure on Apple?
-In terms of pressure for a watch, I don't think Apple is ready to unveil that yet especially from what we know from what the teams have been working on and from rumors we've heard from our sources.
It's not of the point where they're ready to go with it.
A lot of products that we're gonna see this fall kinda got
locked down on the April timeline.
So, if you look at something like a watch, it's just not ready yet and if you're expecting a watch this year, it's probably best to wait 'til next year to see that from Apple.
In terms of what the product will be, that's the kind of interesting story.
I think a lot of people, myself included, are expecting the Samsung watch to kinda be a companion to your smartphone.
It's not a phone itself, something Samsung has actually done with a couple of previous products and that's kind of a direction we expect Apple to go to.
-Either way, we'll count
on you to keep us informed of what's happening on the inside.
Josh thank you for your Inside Scoop.
I'm Sumi Das.
Thanks for watching.